Montserrat, Barcelona and Gaudí

Our Barcelona guide Mary (Marichell) told us that the walls around Barcelona were completed in the thirteenth century. By the middle of the nineteenth century the city had become too crowded. The walls were destroyed and the city expanded to the north. It was in this new part that Antony Gaudi built his planned community, although only three of the houses ever sold. We went to Montserrat monastery, begun in the ninth century. Local residents reported that a carving of the Virgin was found in a cave. When monks tried to move it to the cathedral, it miraculously became too heavy to move. So they built a shrine there on the mountain. A main product was a kind of cottage cheese called mató, which is now mixed with honey and eaten as a dessert. We returned to the city, drove by some other Gaudi buildings, and took a tour of Parc Guell. On the way back to the ship we did a bus tour of Montjuic (which means Mountain of the Jews), the Olympic village and the port. That night we had dinner at the chef's table. There was an Asian feast that was highlighted by Chinese dumplings. There was also an iced red chili sorbet that was creative and delicious.Read more